“Designing Women” Thursday: When Gerald McRaney guested as Dash Goff and met wife Delta Burke

Of all of the much-married Suzanne Sugarbaker’s ex husbands, she seemed to still have a soft spot for writer Dash Goff.

And who could blame here?

He was good looking, smart and had this way with words that could sweep anyone off their feet.

We first met Dash during season two of Designing Women when he he is suffering from writers block and drops in on Suzanne, Julia, Mary Jo and Charlene.

I love this episode because there is a lot of reading of beautiful words. What makes it all the more special is it served as an introduction for Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney who fell madly in love more than 20 years ago and remain married to this day.

“That’s the one where we got together so that’s a very important role for me,” Gerald told me when we spoke at a recent Hollywood event.

I asked if he was as smooth with the words as Dash Goff.

“Well, sometimes I do,” he admitted. “Being Southern myself, we do tend to get a little flowery.”

When I told him that I am huge Delta Burke fan. He said: “I am too so we have something in common.”

Gerald appeared on one more episodes of Designing Women as Dash. It was the classic Reservations for Eight episode when the women and their men get snowed in at a vacation cabin and engage in a ferocious battle of the sexes debate.

Then he stepped into Dash’s shoes one last time in 1995. Although Delta had been famously fired from the show after season 5 (the series never recovered but did go on for two more seasons), she and creator Linda Bloodwoth Thomason resolved their differences and revived the character of Suzanne in the CBS series Women of the House. It lasted less than one season.

Gerald is a busy man this television season being regular on NBC’s Undercovers and has a recurring role on Facing Kate on USA network. How does he juggle it all?

“It’s feast or famine in this business,” he said. “What’s happened thus far is I’ve gone up to Canada twice to do Facing Kate and it just didn’t conflict, we hadn’t started yet on Undercovers. We’re going to see how things work during the season and see if I can see if I can get up and do some more Facing Kate because I love doing it.”

A series lead on Simon and Simon, Major Dad and Promised Land, Gerald is happy to have a supporting role this time around: “I much prefer this, especially at my age. Let those young kids do the heavy carrying.”